Portable disposable stove or grill



April 25, 1961 E. w. c. RUSSELL ET AL 2,931,249

PORTABLE DISPOSABLE STOVE 0R GRILL Filed May 17, 1957 IN VENTORS ATTORNEY 2,981,249 PORTABLE DISPOSABLE STOVE R GRILL Filed May 17, 1957, Ser. No. 659,981 3 Claims. (Cl. 126-25) This invention relates to a or grill.

In the prior copending application of one of us, the application of Edward W. C. Russell (United States Serial No. 590,622, filed June 11, 1956, now abandoned; Canadian Serial No. 709,262, filed June 14, 1956, now abandoned) entitled Quick-Firing Disposable Cooking Unit, an invention is disclosed having certain common features and objectives.

A principal object of the present invention is the provision of a stove or grill fabricated according to such a simple design and of such cheap materials that the entire unit may be simply discarded after a single use. The gn'll of the invention is therefore ideal for campers, tourists, picnickers and others. Conventional campers grills heretofore known are designed for repeated usage and have been too costly in their construction to be disposable, hence they require cooling, cleaning, portaging and storage prior to the next use. The invention eliminates all of these nuisances.

By being disposable, the device of the invention also reduces the fire hazards attendant to conventional grills which must be left to burn out and cool after use. The grill of the invention may be disposed of in a number of safe ways offering nochance of causing forest fires or other fires, such as by discarding it in a body of water, wetting it down, or simply by burying it in the earth.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a disposable grill a built-in, self-contained fuel supply with igniting means included, so that the grill is a unitary firepackage requiring no extraneous equipment for its use other than a match or flame to set it 'afire. Conventional grills are not so constructed, it being the usual case that a separate supply or fuel and tinder must be carried, or else gathered at the site of cooking.

Other objects and advantages will be made apparent in describing the drawing, wherein:

Fig. l is a perspective view of the device;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section with parts in elevation;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on lines 3-3, Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of the edge formation of the metal mesh employed.

From the drawing it will become apparent that the grill of the invention consists of but three main parts, the body 10, the fuel tray 11 and the fuel package 12. The body and tray 11 are shown as constructed from a strip of common width of perforated metal such as expanded sheet metal, which is commercially available and extremely cheap. In Figs. 1-3, for reasons of clarity, only the outline of the sheet metal structure is shown. The construction is carried out in such a way that no wastage is involved. Expanded sheet metal of the gauge commonly used in metal wall lath for plastered walls has been found to be highly suitable for the purpose, since its surface is highly perforate. It can be bent easily, but is still sufliciently strong and resilient to retain its shape portable disposable stove tent 2,981,249 Patented Apr. 25, 1951 although subjected to heating. Furthermore, this material contains no soldered joints found in other metal mesh which would melt on heating. There are several other mesh or perforated sheet metal products available which meet these requirements to varying degrees.

To form body 10, an elongated strip or blank of this mesh material of suitable length and width is cut from the supply thereof and bent at approximate -degree angles to form the cooking platform 13 and the support members or legs 14 and 15. The mesh material is bent at points selected to form the legs 14 and 15 in equal lengths, hence cooking platform 13 is supported as a substantially level area for cooking purposes, except that the latter may be bent with a slight concavit as best seen in Fig. 2, to prevent food items such as sausages or hot dogs from rolling off the ends of the grill.

Next, fuel tray 11 is made from another strip of the same mesh material, cut from the supply to a length approximately equal to the length of the cooking platform 13, and formed or bent as shown. It will be seen that tray 11 has a slightly dished or concave bottom, at point 16, Fig. 3, to provide an air space between it and the bottom of the fuel package 12. This arrangement prevents the mesh of tray 11 from conducting off the heat of any fire consuming the bottom of the fuel package when the latter has just been lit.

It will also be seen that the tray 11 is formed with upstanding side walls 17 and 18, which are of sufficient height to hold fire package 12 securely in the position illustrated, leaving it impossible for such a package of a size further described below to fall out of the sides of the grill.

Particularly if expanded metal is used, it will be found that all the edges of body 10 and tray 11 will be formed of jagged or serrated ends of metal wire which are preferably bent back into the material to form edge seams of double thickness. The appearance of the edges of the material when so This arrangement removes any edges which could cut or scratch the user or other objects, and provides extra strength.

A preferred fuel package which is part of the invention is shown as package 12 in the drawings. Package 12 is preferably formed of a strong paper bag of kraft paper or the like which has been liberally sprayed with or dipped in some flammable substance such as hot parafiin, which saturates the bag and upon cooling adheres in droplets to its sides. Such a bag is preferably packed with a good grade of granular fuel such as wood charcoal as indicated at 20, Fig. 3, although other solid fuels such as briquets may be used. The bag, when so packed, may be simply closed by folding its mouth and sealing it with a staple 21, Fig. 1.

The fuel package 12, thus prepared, should be sufiiciently large to occupy most of the tray 11 and should be of sufiicient depth to make contact with the underside of the cooking platform 13, when tray 11 is installed in the body 10, as will be next described. There is thus provided a fuel package which is highly inflammable, contains its fuel in such manner that the fuel cannot escape, and can be installed in the device in a manner to prevent it from shifting around in the tray when being transported.

The means for securing tray 11 with fuel package 12 in body 10 of the grill are as follows. In forming the legs 14 and 15, the metal mesh is bent sufficiently at shoulders 2223 so that legs 14 and 15 tend to take a position relative to one another which is less than the length of tray 11. In other words, when tray 11 is placed between legs 14 and 15 the legs tend to press against and exert a compressive spring action on the ends of tray 11. This action, coupled with the fact that treated is illustrated at 18, Fig. 4.

terial of the legs in the manner shown, insuring that the tray, when installed, will take the proper elevation with respect to the cooking platform 13 to hold the fuel package 12 in the condition specified above. It will also be noted that the shoulders 24-45 support tray 11 with a good ground clearance allowing air to reach fuel package 12 from all sides.

It will be appreciated that by the means above described for supporting tray 11 inside body 10, advantage has been taken of the capabilities of the mesh material so that no extra parts such as hooks or fasteners are needed. In order to remove tray 11 after use, supports 14-15 are merely pulled apart. This facilitates disposal of embers or insertion of a new fuel package if the stove is to be used more than once. 7

The practicality of the invention is illustrated by the specifications for a commercial embodiment being marketed, wherein the cooking platform measures 12" x 8". The legs are high and support the fuel tnay about 2" from the ground. The fuel bag, filled and sealed, measures long, 5" wide and 3" deep. This entire unit weighs less than one pound, will deliver a broiling fire within 15 minutes after being lighted and for about two hours.

What is claimed is:

1. A cooking unit composed of a body section and a fuel tray section each formed from a single blank piece of metallic mesh material, the body section being shaped as a. substantially level area providing a cooking platform, the ends of said body section being downwardly bent to form a pair of supporting legs of substantially equal length, the fuel tray being formed with a length substantially equal to the length of the cooking platform, each of said legs being sufficiently bent in the direction of the other leg to exert a compressive spring action on the ends of the fuel tray when said fuel tray is placed between said legs, the legs thus supporting said fuel tray therebetween.

2. The cooking unit according to claim 1, wherein the pair of legs are additionally inwardly bent to form supporting shoulders beneath the points of contact between said legs and the ends of said fuel tray.

3. A cooking unit including, in combination, a body section and a fuel tray section each formed from a single blank piece of metallic mesh material, the body section being shaped as a substantially level area providing a cooking platform, the ends of said body section being downwardly bent to form a pair of supporting legs of substantially equal length, the fuel tray being formed with a length substantially equal to the length of the cooking platform, each of said legs being sufficiently bent in the direction of the other leg to exert a compressive spring action on the endsof the fuel tray when said fuel tray is placed between said legs, the legs thus supporting the fuel tray therebetween, and a sealed combustible package of fuel carried on said fuel tray beneath said cooking platform, the depth dimensions of said package being sufiicient to make substantial frictional contact with both the tray and the underside of the cooking platform, thus causing the fuel package to be clamped resiliently in the unit when said fuel tray is in operative position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 242,158 Rockey May 31, 1881 645,480 Matthias Mar. 13, 1900 941,910 Bowman et al Nov. 30, 1909 1,207,106 Welsh Dec. 5, 1916 1,298,762 Milligan .Apr. 1, 1919 1,401,803 Lynes Dec. 27, 1921 1,564,276 Robertson Dec. 8, 1925 1,966,945 Bowers July 17, 1934 2,006,562 Scheu July 2, 1935 2,091,951 Anthony Sept. 7, 1937 2,746,378 Lang May 22, 1956 2,772,627 Newell Dec. 4, 1956 2,780,215: Vancanti Feb. 5, 1957 2,790,317 Bowers Apr. 30, 1957 2,820,446 I Freeman Ian. 21, 1958 2,834,661 Chaplin May 13, 1958 2,842,116 Hinderer July 8, 1958 2,860,624 Eddy Nov. 18, 1958 2,918,051 Broman Dec. 22, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS Article regarding the Broman Grill in Aluminum Progress, published by the Reynolds Metals Co., vol. 45, only page 6 relied on. 

